Label Review.

2019 album. Folk.

Our Overview.

In an unmissable festive collaboration, two of the English folk scene’s most inventive acts (trio Lady Maisery and duo Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith) announce a brand new album and 8 special launch concerts. ‘Awake Arise’ celebrates the riches of varied winter traditions from the British Isles and further afield and reflects on the hope and resilience in folksong that can bring us closer together through the darkest season.

Award-winning folk trio Lady Maisery (Hannah James, Rowan Rheingans and Hazel Askew) have for nearly a decade produced “some of the most exquisite, thrilling vocal harmony work in the English folk scene” - The Guardian

Whether unearthing a feminist twist hidden in a traditional tale, delivering a poignant anti-war ballad, or showcasing their immense multi instrumental talents in original compositions that draw on a myriad of musical influences, Lady Maisery are skillful explorers of the power, beauty and vitality of song.

The beguiling musical partnership of Jimmy Aldridge and Sid Goldsmith complete the powerful line-up of the Awake Arise super-group, bringing the outstanding vocals, sensitive instrumentation and powerful social conscience that has won them widespread critical acclaim.

“Making common cause between antique songs and present circumstances is one of the grails of modern folk, one this young duo pull off impressively... rousing stuff.” -The Observer

A companion to the live show, their debut album features traditional songs, folk carols, spoken word and newly written music to galvanise and brighten this darkest season. Awake Arise is a warm gift to the wintertime from five of the most engaging and celebrated performers on the English folk scene. True to the reputations of both acts as out-spoken voices on the folk scene, this collection is also a rallying cry to embrace the power of collective endeavour as a vital support during times of hardship and loneliness. In this most uncertain of winters, Awake Arise is more than just a great night out; these are essential songs which remind us who we are and why we matter to each other.

Track Listing: Sing We All Merrily / Up In The Morning Early/The Christmas Road / Bring Hither Now The Holly Bough / Carol Reading/Shortly Before 8:30pm / Hail Smiling Morn / Winter Berries / The Old Churchyard / The Bear Song / Night Came Early / The King / Da Day Dawn/Like As The Thrush In Winter / The Snow It Melts The Soonest / The Snow It Melts The Soonest / Snow Falls / Wassail Recipe / Cornish Wassail / Heading For Home / Hope Is Before Us

Label Review. 

Two shows issued for the first time. Recorded 12th January & 3rd October. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

The legendary folk/jazz/roots performer Leon Redbone was a “Wanderer between the worlds”. No other words can describe the musical work of the 1949 in Cyprus born Leon Redborne. Best known for his interpretations of music from the depression times, Blues, Ragtime, Folk and the Tin Pan Alley era and on top his remarkable singing style. His music is a reminder of how novel a figure he cut at the time: a sly anachronism singing ragtime, country and Delta blues in dark glasses and a Panama hat.

‘Live In Bremen’ features both concerts which took place in the same year, 1977 in Bremen in Northern Germany and show two different kinds of Leon Redbone. Whilst at his first concert at the “Glocke” he was accompanied by tuba player Jonathan Dorn, the other concert at the “Post-Aula” was a solo concert, pure and simple. Both concerts are electrifying through his unique performance, the combination of Blues and influences from Folk-Jazz. 

Strange in the first place the music develops into charming recordings from a special entertainer that he was. He sings, yodels, murmurs and hums and knows to fascinate his fans with his warm and outstanding voice. A must have for every fan of traditional and not commonplace music. Now both concerts are now officially released on CD for the first time.

Track Listing:

LP 1 - Bremen, Glocke, 12th Jan. 1977: Champagne Charlie / I Ain’t Got Nobody / Ain’t Misbehavin’ (I’m Saving My Love For You) / Has Anybody Seen My Gal / Big Time Woman / My Walkin’ Stick / Diddie Wa Diddie / Polly Wolly Doodle 

LP 2 - Bremen, Post-Aula, 3rd Oct. 1977: Nobody Knows But Me / Diddie Wa Diddie / When I Take My Sugar To Tea / I Ain’t Got Nobody / Champaign Charlie / Ain’t Misbehavin’ (I’m Saving My Love For You) / Polly Wolly Doodle / Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone

Label Review.

Rosemary Clooney, James Darren, Charlie Byrd Trio, George Benson & Al Jarreau, Curtis Stigers, Rita Coolidge and more. Also available on CD+.

Our Overview.

Founded by Carl Jefferson in 1973 following the success of his hugely popular Jazz Festival, Concord Jazz has established itself as one of the finest jazz imprints in the world, home to legends the likes of Art Blakey, Ray Brown, Charlie Byrd, Rosemary Clooney, Stan Getz and Mel Torme, and more.

Over the years since, the label has witnessed development of jazz music from classic to contemporary, joined by acclaimed vocalists and instrumentalists from big band to swing, blues to R&B, Bossa-Nova to soul - ‘Concord Jazz: Rhythm Along The Years’ hopes to capture a glimpse of this shiny page of musical history with a selection of its extraordinary recordings.

UHQCD - Playable on any CD player. Also available on 24-Karat Gold-Edition and 180 Gr. Audiophile LP (17th Janusry 2020).

Track Listing: The Days Of Wine And Roses / A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square / It’s A Wonderful World / Let It Rain ( with Patti Austin ) / No More Blues / All The Things You Are / Carinhoso / We’re All Alone / Ain’t Misbehavin’ / Corcovado (Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars) / In A Mellotone / Falling In Love With Love / Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing / Route 66 / The Shadow Of Your Smile / Every Time We Say Goodbye

Label Review. 

2020 album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Sunderland, UK based indie/art rock trio Field Music’s new release is ‘Making A New World’, a 19 track song cycle about the after-effects of the First World War. But this is not an album about war and it is not, in any traditional sense, an album about remembrance. There are songs here about air traffic control and gender reassignment surgery. There are songs about Tiananmen Square and about ultrasound. There are even songs about Becontree Housing Estate and about sanitary towels.

The songs grew from a project for the Imperial War Museum and were first performed at their sites in Salford and London in January 2019. The starting point was an image from a 1919 publication on munitions by the US War Department, made using ‘sound ranging’, a technique that utilised an array of transducers to capture the vibrations of gunfire at the front. These vibrations were displayed on a graph, similar to a seismograph, where the distances between peaks on different lines could be used to pinpoint the location of enemy armaments. This particular image showed the minute leading up to 11am on 11th November 1918 and the minute immediately after. One minute of oppressive, juddering noise and one minute of near silence. “We imagined the lines from that image continuing across the next hundred years,” says the band’s David Brewis, “and we looked for stories which tied back to specific events from the war or the immediate aftermath.” If the original intention might have been to create a mostly instrumental piece, this research forced and inspired a different approach. These were stories itching to be told.

The songs are in a kind of chronological order, starting with the end of the war itself; the uncertainty of heading home in a profoundly altered world (‘Coffee Or Wine’). Later we hear a song about the work of Dr Harold Gillies (the shimmering ballad, ‘A Change Of Heir’), whose pioneering work on skin grafts for injured servicemen led him, in the 1940s, to perform some of the very first gender reassignment surgeries. We see how the horrors of the war led to the Dada movement and how that artistic reaction was echoed in the extreme performance art of the 60s and 70s (the mathematical head-spin of ‘A Shot To The Arm). Then, in the funk stomp of ‘Money Is A Memory’, we picture an office worker in the German Treasury preparing documents for the final instalment on reparation debts - a payment made in 2010, 91 years after the Treaty of Versailles was signed. A defining, blood-spattered element of 20th Century history becomes a humdrum administrative task in a 21st Century bureaucracy.

LP format pressed on 180g transparent red vinyl in a gatefold sleeve with digital download code. Field Music will tour ‘Making A New World’ throughout 2020.

Track Listing; Sound Ranging / Silence / Coffee Or Wine / Best Kept Garden / I Thought You Were Something Else / Between Nations / A Change Of Heir / Do You Read Me? / From a Dream, Into My Arms / Beyond That Of Courtesy / A Shot To The Arm / A Common Language Pt 1 / A Common Language Pt 2 / Nikon Pt 1 / Nikon Pt 2 / If The Wind Blows / Towards The Hospital / Only In A Man’s World / Money Is A Memory / An Independent State

Label Review.

Tribute to Buddy Holly featuring Marty Wilde, Tommy Steele and Duffy Power and more. Second disc includes alternative takes from Buddy himself.

Our Overview.

Special issue to commemorate the 60th anniversary of “The Day The Music Died” This first limited pressing includes the already sold out “Alternatively” LP on black vinyl and printed sleeve. 3rd February 1959: A hugely important, dark and poignant date in music history. In order to mark the 60th anniversary of the tragedy that really rocked the rock ‘n’ roll era, here is the music of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “Big Bopper” Richardson as interpreted by their friends, peers and fans: from contemporary covers of the songs they made famous by the likes of Rusty York and The Ravens; posthumous but heart-felt versions of their hits by such as Sam Butera, Bobby Vee and Jerry Paul; Buddy Holly successes performed by the original composers Sonny West and Ben Hall, and a handful of tributes by British rock ‘n’ roll stars like Marty Wilde, Tommy Steele and Duffy Power, topped off with the original version of that most touching posthumous tribute of all, “Three Stars” by Californian D.J., Tommy Dee.

“Look up in the sky - up toward the north, There are three new stars brightly shining forth. They’re shining so bright, from heaven above, Gee, we’re gonna miss you, everybody sends their love!”

Track Listing:

LP 1: Rave On - Sonny West / Come On Let’s Go - Tommy Steele / Chantilly Lace - Sam Butera / Oh Boy - Jerry Paul / Donna - Marty Wilde / White Lightnin’ - George Jones / That’ll Be The Day - The Ravens / Peggy Sue - Rusty York / That’s My Little Suzie - Duffy Power / Beggar to a King - Hank Snow / Well All Right - Bobby Vee / Blue Days, Black Nights - Ben Hall / It Doesn’t Matter Anymore - Rob & Roy / Three Stars - Tonny Dee

LP 2: Midnight Shift (alternative take - 26th January 1956) / Don’t Come Back Knockin’ (alternative take - 26th January 1956) / Moonlight Baby (demo cut - 7th December 1955) / Down The Line (alternative demo take - Mid 1955) / I’m Gonna Set My Foot Down (demo cut - Early 1956) / Love Me (demo cut - 7th December 1955) / Not Fade Away (alternative overdub - 29th May 1957) / Maybe Baby (alternative version - 1st March 1957) / Oh Boy (undubbed version - 1st July 1957) / Peggy Sue (alternative take - 1st July 1957) / Think It Over (undubbed alternative take - 13th February 1958) / Reminiscing (undubbed version - 10th September 1958)

Label Review.

2019 album. Sounds like it was recorded in the 1950s. Also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

The Country Side of Harmonica Sam is inspired by the honky tonk sound of the late 50's and early 60's. With a steady 4/4 shuffle, steel guitar and tic-tac bass, the band performs their own original songs right alongside classics from Faron Young, Skeets McDonald, Billy Walker and Ray Price - to name a few. Mix it up with a dash of 50's rock attitude and you get the picture. This album, the latest collection of Honky-Tonk masterpieces by this generation’s finest practitioners of the genre, is appropriately titled ‘Broken Bottle, Broken Heart’.

“Indeed, it was with both a bottle and a broken heart that I first sat down in my favourite chair to listen to these 14 songs of love and loss. Now, I’ll be the first to tell you that it isn’t always the best idea to mix heartache with alcohol while listening to real country music like this - the kind that once drifted out of car radios on back roads, blared out of jukeboxes, and echoed through dancehalls and Honky-Tonks across the U.S.A. Hell, that combination can be downright dangerous to the brokenhearted. But that midnight while taking a drink, closing my eyes, and getting lost in the music, I was transported. I was taken away to another place, another time. It was as if my troubles were lifted, floating off into the horizon with the drifting sound of the steel guitar and soaring vocals.

“Visions of spit shined boots two-stepping across a well-worn dancefloor on a long-gone Saturday night swirled through my mind, with the twang of the guitar and the shuffling rhythms taking my blues away. Maybe it was the tequila talking... but I suspect that it was the music at work - the kind of real Country Music that I think these Swedish gentlemen are the very best at.” - Big Sandy

The band members include bandmaster Peter Andersson (pedal steel), Ulrik Jansson (upright bass), Patrik Malmros (drums), Johan Bandling Melin (lead guitar/harmony vocals) and Harmonica Sam (lead vocals/ rhythm guitar).

Track Listing: My First Broken Heart (Since My Last Broken Heart) / How Can I Love You? / I’ve Been Draggin’ Since You’ve Gone / Losing A Girl You Never Had / I’ll leave The Front door Open / Stepping Out / Cry Baby / Broken Bottle, Broken Heart / I Drink Because I Care / If That’s The Way It’s Gotta Be / Empty House / Why Me / Waiting For A Sunny Day / Patches Of My Heart

Label Review.

2018 album.

Our Overview.

Sunset Rollercoaster is one of the largest independent rock bands in Asia. In preparation for their upcoming USA tour, the band is excited to share their catalogue to the United States and Europe for the first time via Redeye distribution.

A 6-piece band from Taiwan, Sunset Rollercoaster is responsible for introducing a new psychedelic/soul sound to Asia. Because of their 80s style of breezy and chilled out music with a modern spin and their incredibly romantic live performances, fans have nicknamed the band’s genre as ‘pregnant rock.

The Taiwan-based group's breezy, chilled out tunes perfectly accompany sunny strolls along the riverside or lazy mornings in bed with your love. Check out the incredible performance and let the colourful sounds of Sunset Rollercoaster transport you to a brighter mental state.

‘Cassa Nova’ followed their 2011 release, ‘Bossa Nova’, but this album bares little resemblance to their original style. The gap between albums was bridged with the ‘Jinji Kikko EP’, which evolved their sound from fuzzy jangle-pop to a cleaner, 80’s inspired jazz-funk style. ‘Cassa Nova’ carries this sound to new heights, refining and perfecting the experimental sound with more intricate instrumentation and an abstract story. The modern take on an exhausted era’s music makes this album stand out far above the rest.

Track Listing: Almost Mature ‘87 / Greedy / Cool of Lullaby / Angel Disco Love / Slow / Oriental / Summum Bonnum / Libidram / 10 Year Taipei (Matured ‘17)

Label Review.

2020 album also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

Producer and club-informed forward thinker Londoner Georgia Barnes’ sophomore album, ‘Seeking Thrills’, is a musically daring story of hedonism, self-discovery and, above all, the transcendental power of the dancefloor. ‘Seeking Thrills’ is a sharply paced and fascinating album, packed with injections of lightness and fun, pared with rich, bubbling melodies that makes listening to it an experience that takes you into the party, through electro-pop into R&B, and back again. Her deep, brooding reflections carry us through euphoria, heartache and melancholy but always with the memory of the good times. Georgia is reminding you of the altitude of your last real thrill, and when we turn the record on, we’re there again, aching for more.

Heavily inspired by Chicago House and Detroit Techno of the early 80s, Seeking Thrills fuses analogue club sounds with solid pop songwriting and showcases Georgia's lifelong love affair with the drums.

The North West Londoner has been on a long, dazzling journey since the release of her critically acclaimed debut album in 2015. Her first self-titled collection of percussive, punk-inflected pop songs was lauded by The Guardian, Vice, The FADER and others - but nobody predicted the about turn she would make when she returned with two rough-hewn diamonds of house music in 2019.

Track Listing: Started Out / About Work The / Dancefloor / Never Let You Go / 24 Hours * / Mellow (ft Shygirl) / Til I Own It / I Can’t Wait / Feel It / Ultimate Sailor / Ray Guns / / The Thrill (ft Maurice) / Honey Dripping Sky / * = CD / LP digital download card only

Label Review. 

2019 album with 3 bonus tracks. Also available on CD, and Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

The Who has one of the greatest rock legacies in music history, they’re one of the all-time great live bands, have sold over 100 million records world including 9 US & 10 UK top ten albums and 14 UK top ten singles in a career spanning six decades. Now 55 years after they made their first recordings, The Who is back with their first new album in thirteen years entitled ‘WHO’. The eleven-track album was mostly recorded in London and Los Angeles during Spring and Summer 2019 and was co-produced by Pete Townshend & D. Sardy (who has worked with Noel Gallagher, Oasis, LCD Soundsystem, Gorillaz) with vocal production by Dave Eringa (Manic Street Preachers, Roger Daltrey, Wilko Johnson).

Singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend are joined on the album by long-time Who drummer Zak Starkey, bassist Pino Palladino along with contributions from Simon Townshend, Benmont Tench, Carla Azar, Joey Waronker and Gordon Giltrap. The album cover has been created by famed pop artist, Sir Peter Blake who first met the band in 1964 at a taping of the legendary TV show Ready Steady Go. Sir Peter designed and contributed a painting to the sleeve of The Who’s album ‘Face Dances’ in 1981.

The songs on ‘WHO’ cover a myriad of subjects including the Grenfell Tower fire, musical theft, spirituality, reincarnation, the power of memory and “an old rock star that has lost his marbles”. Daltrey rates it amongst their strongest “I think we’ve made our best album since ‘Quadrophenia’ in 1973, Pete hasn’t lost it, he’s still a fabulous songwriter, and he’s still got that cutting edge”.

Pete Townshend: “This album is almost all new songs written last year, with just two exceptions. There is no theme, no concept, no story, just a set of songs that I (and my brother Simon) wrote to give Roger Daltrey some inspiration, challenges and scope for his newly revived singing voice. Roger and I are both old men now, by any measure, so I’ve tried to stay away from romance, but also from nostalgia if I can. I didn’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Memories are OK, and some of the songs refer to the explosive state of things today. I made new home studio demos of all these songs in the summer of 2018 using a wide collection of instruments old and new.“

Label Review.

Selections From The 2004 2007 2010 & 2013 Crossroads Guitar Festivals on Vinyl for the first time. Also available on CD.

Our Overview.

‘Crossroads Revisted’ is an exceptional collection of nearly four hours of live performances from Eric Clapton's acclaimed Crossroads Guitar Festival. The English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter - and the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame : once as a solo artist and separately as a member of the Yardbirds and of Cream - founded the festival in 2004 and it has given fans an opportunity to witness truly historic performances by some of the world's greatest guitarists. While fans have been able to relive those magical moments since 2016 thanks to a series of successful CD, DVD and Blu-ray compilations this is it’s first release on Vinyl.

A veritable "Who's Who" of guitar music can be heard on this set, including Clapton, Jeff Beck, Gary Clark Jr., Robert Cray, Billy F Gibbons, Vince Gill, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, John Mayer, Carlos Santana, Joe Walsh, Ronnie Wood, and Jimmie Vaughn, just to name a few. Naturally, the all-star jams deliver some of the collection s most unforgettable moments.

Held every three years since 2004, the Crossroads Guitar Festival raises funds for the Crossroads Centre in Antigua, a treatment and education facility that Clapton founded in 1998 to help people suffering from chemical dependency.

LP 1. Sweet Home Chicago”- Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin & Jimmie Vaughan / Rock Me Baby” - Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, B.B. King & Jimmie Vaughan / Steamroller - James Taylor with Joe Walsh  / What The Cowgirls Do - Vince Gill with Jerry Douglas  / After Midnight - J.J. Cale with Eric Clapton / Green Light Girl - Doyle Bramhall II  / Hell At Home - Sonny Landreth with Eric Clapton / City Love - John Mayer                                                

LP 3. Little By Little – Susan Tedeschi with The Derek Trucks Band / Poor Johnny - The Robert Cray Band / Paying The Cost To Be The Boss - B.B. King with The Robert Cray Band, Jimmie   Vaughan & Hubert Sumlin / Tulsa Time - Sheryl Crow with Eric Clapton, Vince Gill & Albert Lee / On The Road Again - Willie Nelson with Sheryl Crow, Vince Gill & Albert Lee / Isn’t It A Pity - Eric Clapton / Belief - John Mayer  / Mas Y Mas - Los Lobos                                                  

LP 4. Big Block - Jeff Beck / Presence Of The Lord - Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton / Cocaine - Eric Clapton / Waiting For The Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago – ZZ Top / Don’t Owe You A Thang – Gary Clark Jr.  / Bright Lights – Gary Clark Jr.                                         

LP 5. Our Love Is Fading - Sheryl Crow with Eric Clapton, Doyle Bramhall II & Gary Clark Jr.  / Lay Down Sally - Vince Gill with Sheryl Crow, Keb’ Mo’, Albert Lee, James Burton & Earl Klugh / Space Captain - Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Band with Warren Haynes, David Hidalgo, Cesar Rosas & Chris Stainton / Hammerhead – Jeff Beck / Five Long Years - Buddy Guy with Jonny Lang & Ronnie Wood / Hear My Train A Comin - Doyle Bramhall II / Dear Mr. Fantasy - Steve Winwood & Eric Clapton                        

LP 6. Born Under A Bad Sign - Booker T. with Steve Cropper, Keb’ Mo’, Blake Mills, Matt “Guitar” Murphy & Albert Lee / Everyday I Have The Blues - The Robert Cray Band with B.B. King, Eric Clapton & Jimmie Vaughan / Please Come Home - Gary Clark Jr. / Tumbling Dice - Vince Gill with Keith Urban & Albert Lee / Shot The Sheriff - Eric Clapton / Crossroads - Eric Clapton 

Label Review. 

2019 album. Rap / Hip Hop. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

The New York, Brooklyn, hip-hop duo of DJ Premier and MC Guru aka Gang Star, were one of the most influential MC and DJ tandem of the 1990s, and set new standards for East Coast rap, mixing their poetic hip-hop with adventurous jazzy beats with laid back rhymes. Over the course of their distinguished career, they became a cultural institution and a brand you could ultimately trust. With a handful of indelible classic albums on their resume, DJ Premier and Guru’s catalogue has not only persevered but mastered the test of time. Simply, Gang Starr did not follow trends, they created them. 

And now the dynamic duo are back with their first album in 16 years ‘One Of The Best Yet’ released into a very different hip hop landscape to their last album 2003’s ‘The Ownerz’. Though rapper Guru died in 2010 DJ Premier avoids the usual pitfalls of posthumous releases, deploying neat verses and brilliant production tricks.

Though they never “officially” disbanded after the release of their last project (The Ownerz 2003), Premier and Guru still remained infinitely connected to each other even as they embarked on solo paths.Premier won three Grammy’s along the way and assisted in turning fast rising artists such as Nas, Jay-Z, Notorious B.I.G. and many others into rap royalty; and his imprint included work with artists such as Drake, Christina Aguilera, Kanye West, Dr. Dre, Snoop, Mac Miller, The Game, Ludacris, Maroon 5, Common, Mos Def, Rakim, KRS-One, Janet Jackson, D’Angelo, DJ Khaled, Joey Bada$$, Royce 5’9, Twenty One Pilots , and Miley Cyrus ; all of which spoke to his diversity and ability to traverse genres

.In turn, Guru would go on to release his own quartet of highly influential Jazzmatazz projects.

In the interim, fans always clamored for another Gang Starr album. Though there were whispers and murmurs over the years, nothing ever panned out and the possibilities of that project being willed into existence seemingly grew more remote as the years passed by. After Guru tragically passed away in 2010 the hope seemed to vanish altogether. The one person who refused to give hope was DJ Premier.

In September 2019, Premier announced the return of Gang Starr with the group’s first song since 2003, “Family and Loyalty” featuring J. Cole. DJ Premier began crafting ‘One of the Best Yet’ in 2017, and he said in a statement he always believed the project would come to fruition, even after Guru’s death in 2010. “I never lost faith, or wavered,” he said. “I still felt it inside of me, it just happened to be nine years later [after Guru’s passing]. We all want the things we want right now, but I am a patient guy. I hung in there and I just kept believing.”

'One Of The Best Yet' is many things. Yes, it’s the first new Gang Starr album in sixteen years and it is a historic event to be celebrated and rejoiced, but it symbolises much more than that. 

'One Of The Best Yet' further cements Gang Starr’s legacy. This literal gift of an album not only harkens you back to Gang Starr’s seminal work of the past, but it re-establishes their impact in a modern-day perspective.

Tracks Listing: ‘The Sure Shot’ (Intro) / ‘Lights Out” feat. M.O.P. / ‘Bad Name’ / ‘Hit Man’ feat. Q-Tip / What’s Real’ feat. Group Home & Royce Da 5’9” / ‘Keith Casim Elam’ (Interlude) / ‘From A Distance’ feat. Jeru The Damaja / ‘Family and Loyalty” feat. J. Cole / ‘Get Together’ feat. Ne-Yo & Nitty Scott / ‘NYGz/ GS 183rd’ (Interlude) / ‘So Many Rappers’ / ‘Business Or Art’ feat. Talib Kweli / ‘Bring It Back Here’ / ‘One Of The Best Yet’ (Big Shug Interlude) / Take Flight’ (Militia Pt. 4) feat. Big Shug & Freddie Foxxx / ‘Bless The Mic’

Label Review.

2019 debut album. Folk.

Our Overview.

Mishra are a global folk outfit gathering momentum on the UK scene. With strong roots in U.K folk, the collective add influences from Indian classical, Americana, and jazz to their repertoire, quite simply original music that defies definition and which is already bringing them deserved awards recognition from just under two years of performing.

Formed in 2017 of the creative partnership led by Kate Griffin’s voice and inimitable clawhammer banjo and driven by Ford Collier’s continent-hopping instrumental skills (Indian tabla, African calabash, Irish whistle and guitar), they won Cambridge Folk Festival’s first ever Christian Raphael prize and in separate projects were both shortlisted for the 2018 BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards.

Both already accomplished folk musicians (The Drystones and The Unsung Roots) 2018 saw them play Sidmouth Folk Week, Cambridge Folk Festival, Priddy Folk Festival and many more. Until 2019, Mishra performed as a duo under the name Kate Griffin and Ford Collier; their sound has now been further underpinned by the addition of versatile jazz-folk double-bassist and bouzouki player Joss Mann-Hazell. Mishra’s debut album also features accomplished tabla player John Ball, whose contribution allows a full band sound on live-inthe- room analogue recordings of their uniquely accessible Indo-folk.

For ‘The Loft Tapes’, Joss Mann-Hazell and John Ball join Kate and Ford for seven quartet tracks and four trio tracks, all of which are recorded live-in-the-room, in the loft of a farmhouse in Gloucestershire, to analogue tape. The process of capturing whole performances of the band playing together, and the warmth and incredibly realistic sound of tape compared to digital recording make each track a snapshot of a particular time and place; a musical moment suspended in time.

Track Listing: Intro / Road Dust And Honey / Chase The Sparrowhawk / Deep Seas / Beautifully Blind / Angeline The Baker / Jog For Joy / Taru Taru / Keep Your Kindness / Scarlet Town / Ring In The Changes / Morphology

Label Review.

1968 debut album. Sundazed.

Our Overview.

Canadian-American jazz rock group Blood, Sweat and Tears’ classic debut album! Although the band - whose are noted for their combination of brass and rock band instrumentation- would later achieve mainstream pop success and burst on to the pop playlists with three million sellers in 1969, Blood, Sweat and Tears’ seminal 1968 debut ‘Child Is Father To The Man’ is generally acknowledged as the band’s greatest and most adventurous work.

‘Child Is Father To The Man’ is a concept album with very eclectic material and the group’s only album under the leadership of founding keyboardist/singer Al Kooper, this one-of-a-kind classic features a unique psychedelic/jazz/blues/ classical fusion, with the FM radio hits ‘I Can’t Quit Her’ and ‘I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know,’ along with unique interpretations of songs by Tim Buckley, Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson and Carole King. Cut by Kevin Gray and pressed at RTI on red vinyl!

Track Listing: Overture / I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know / Morning Glory / My Days Are Numbered / Without Her / Just One Smile / I Can’t Quit Her / Meagan’s Gypsy Eyes / Something’ Goin’ On / House In The Country / The Modern Adventures Of Plato, Diogenes And Freud / So Much Love/Underture

Label Review.

2019 album. Jazz.

Our Overview.

When three of the best jazz musicians of their generation get in the studio to record an album of some of their favourite tunes you know the outcome is going to be something pretty special. For their second album on Jellymould, British jazz heavyweights Stan Sulzmann and Nikki Iles arejoined by a very special guest - their friend and legendary double bass player Dave Holland.

It is over 20 years since Stan Sulzmann and Nikki Iles recorded their first album together. Since then these two outstanding musicians have become stalwarts of the British jazz scene. They have composed original, critically acclaimed music for various ensembles both live and on record and played with some of the biggest names in the jazz world including John Taylor, Kenny Wheeler,Vince Mendoza and Anthony Braxton.

Double bass legend Dave Holland needs no introduction. Plucked from the house band at Ronnie’s to join Miles Davis’ band at the tender age of 22 he has an international career leading his own all-star bands and working with a who’s who of artists including Thelonious Monk, Stan Getz and Joe Henderson.The nine tracks on ‘Lush Life’ are a beautiful collection of unusual “standards” and four originals, two each from Stan and Nikki, who have contributed short liner notes to the tunes explaining why they were included on the album. From the opening track “You Don’t Know What Love Is” - included because of Stan’s love of Billie Holiday’s rendition - to “Between Moons” by John Taylor, an influential friend to all the artists on the record, to the final title track “Lush Life” you can hear in the recording how much these three stellar musicians enjoy making music.

Personnel: Stan Sulzmann - Tenor Saxophone, Nikki Iles - Piano, Dave Holland - Double Bass.

Track Listing: You Don’t Know What Love Is / Who Can I Turn To / Between Moons / Pip / Iris / The Night We Called It A Day / Odonata / Moontide / Lush Life

Label Review.

2019 album also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

Will Samson is releasing ‘Paralanguage’ his fifth album Across his previous releases Will has experimented with electronica, folktronica, ambient and a more guitar-friendly aesthetic - Paralanguage finds him exploring and assuredly consolidating these various styles on a album inspired by his experiences over the preceding years. Will Samson still remembers his first - and only - experiments with psilocybin. For some time, following the death of his father in 2012, the British musician had suffered from mild PTSD, unable to process the grief provoked by the sudden nature of his passing. It took him several years, however, before he feltconfident enough to explore the possibilities this popular compound was said to offer.

Finally, he and his girlfriend retreated to the countryside for a day.Samson’s fifth album, ‘Paralanguage’ - his first for Wichita Recordings - was in many ways inspired by his subsequent experiences and seeks to emulate them too. Indeed, vocals for two tracks, ‘Ochre Alps’ and ‘Flowerbed’, which he’d been struggling to finish for a number of months, were written and recorded over two subsequent afternoons spent micro-dosing.

Perhaps not surprisingly, ‘Paralanguage’ - the title chosen because the album’s central themes address the way “our bodies, not just our minds, hold memories and emotions” - is Samson’s most cohesive album to date. There’s a conspicuously tender thread running through its eight songs, from ‘Calescent’, itseloquently poignant opener, to ‘Lacuna’’s fuzzy nostalgia, from ‘Beyond The Dust’’s sweet serenity to ‘The Smallest Sliver’’s redemptive fragility. Samson’s voice, too, has never sounded more moving, committed or confident, his yearning falsetto as touching as his gentle tenor - comparisons to Sufjan Stevens and Patrick Watson are not inappropriate - while his arrangements are intricate yet never ostentatious, with precisely detailed programming inseparable from the warmth of his analogue instrumentation. “Perhaps,” Samson observes, “it's a reflection of feeling more centred and grounded.”

Recorded largely in his home studio in Brussels - the first time he’s had a space exclusively devoted to his music - ‘Paralanguage’ finds Samson reunited with regular collaborator Beatrijs De Klerck, a violinist who also plays with A Winged Victory For The Sullen and Christina Vantzou. Ben Lester, who’s worked with S. Carey and Sufjan Stevens, added pedal steel to ‘Beyond The Dust’ and Jeremy Boettcher (who also performs with S. Carey) added double bass to ‘The Human Mosaic’, while Canadian songwriter Michael Feuerstack added backing vocals to ‘The Smallest Sliver’.

Otherwise, the album is all Samson’s own work, a testament to his desire to seek peace not just on record but in his life. A tribute to his inquisitive nature, ‘Paralanguage’ is also, ultimately, a memorial to his father, whose life shaped Samson’s own and whose tragic passing has now inadvertently yielded a source of magical consolation for us all. As the 30-year-old sings on ‘The Smallest Sliver’, “Sometimes my love feels too big for my body / So I have to let it go.” In doing so, Will Samson has allowed us all to share it.

Track Listing: Calescent / Beyond The Dust / Flowerbed / Triplet / Lacuna / The Human Mosaic / Ochre Alps / The Smallest Sliver

Label Review. 

2019 debut album. Rock. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Alt-Rock Chicago based musician Fran - aka Maria Jacobson - is releasing her debut album ‘A Private Picture’ and it is a journey that began when Fran taught herself guitar as a way to process change. Following a disillusioning season as a theatre actor and a few failed relationships, Jacobson took a job teaching English in Mexico, which afforded her the downtime to write. Returning to Chicaco, she formed a band—vulnerable, honest indie rock—which Buffablog recommends "for fans of Alvvays, Hop Along, or Jay Som."

The trick is to make a confession entertaining. ‘A Private Picture’ delivers a collection of extremely personal experiences that have been distilled and abstracted to the point that you can see yourself in their imagery, find analogs to your own emotional history in their scenarios ‘when you hear them, it’s a conversation.

It’s therapy, if therapy was allowed to turn you on and make you shake what you got. At its core, Fran’s music is about sharing a truth -’telling it, confessing it, yelling it’in the service of human connection. Or, as Jacobson puts it, ‘I feel that I am a songwriter for the same reason I wanted to be an actor. I want to tell the truth. I want to challenge myself to get closer and closer to the core of an experience, an emotion- I want to say it, sing it, in a way that says exactly what it is. I cry when I write songs because I am constantly making discoveries, about myself, about the world, about the best way to convey and connect and get closer.’

Track Listing: Now / Company / So Surreal / Time and Place / In My Own Time / (I Don’t Want You to Think) I’ve Moved On / A Private Picture / Desert Wanderer